March 20-22 or March 21-23 NCAA Tournament First and Second Rounds
March 27-29 or March 28-30 NCAA Regionals
April 5-7 NCAA Final Four, Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas
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Grrrr. That’s — count ’em — at least 17, and as many as 21, games to be televised on the Big Ten Network this year, running the gamut from who-cares preseason exhibitions to mid-year showdowns with Wisconsin and Michigan State. It also looks like early portions of the Big Ten Tourney will be on BTN too.

It’s not like our Big Ten Network complaints go noticed by anyone anyway, but consider me officially angry. I’m angry at the Big Ten for caring far more about the bottom line than about ensuring as widespread a penetration for its athletics as possible, and I’m angry at cable companies like Comcast for stubbornly holding out on their right hand while they help roll out an SEC network (!!!) on their left.

Listen, assholes: You’re just forcing us away from your product. Instead of selling us all cable, building brand loyalty and getting our monthly fees, you’re pushing us into crowded areas (bars) where we will all share one TV and one satellite. Or, of course, we will just pony up next month’s disposable TV income on a dish of our own. If this — concentrating your market share to bars, and pushing 18-34 males away from service subscription — is your version of a solid business plan, by all means, keep doing what you’re doing. It’s just us loyal fans getting screwed, that’s all.